New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Monday asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to keep a seat available till the disposal of a plea seeking direction for reservation for OBC category in Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) course commencing from July this year.

"Respondent (AIIMS) shall keep one seat available till further order in the case," Justice Jayant Nath said and posted the matter for July 16 for arguments on a plea of Anusar Gupta, first rank holder in OBC category in post-graduate MDS course, who was refused admission on OBC seat in the institute.

Filing the plea through counsel Nitin Kumar Gupta, the petitioner said there are five seats allotted for the MDS course but not a single seat has been reserved by the institute this year for OBC category students, which is illegal as there is a provision of 27 percent reservation of seats for OBC candidates in every institute.

Gupta in his plea said that "he has been denied admission in OBC category due to wrong and illegal calculation or allocation of seats for OBC candidates, wherein not even a single seat has been reserved for OBC candidates (27 percent reservation) despite having a total of five seats."

His counsel told the court that AIIMS has failed to adhere to allocation of 27 percent total seats for OBC category candidates, which is contrary to the settled law.

The plea said AIIMS has "wrongfully" combined MD/MS seats with MDS seats though the two courses belong to completely different categories. MD/MS degrees are for medical courses whereas MDS degree is for dental course.

The petitioner further said all the 27 percent seats reserved for OBC category candidates have been given to MD/MS courses and none to MDS course.

"AIIMS has combined all the 121 seats (for MD/MS courses and MDS course) and allocated the 27 percent reservation i.e. 33 seats to MD/MS courses and not even a single seat to MDS course, which is illegal and has caused grave injustice to the petitioner (Gupta) and his career," the plea said.

The petition sought direction for AIIMS to reserve 27 percent seats out of total seats for OBC category in MDS course and allow him to attend the counselling on June 12, 2013 for the admission in the OBC seat.

It further sought declaration of the current allocation of seats for OBC category in MD/MS and MDS courses as illegal.